Lemon water argggg (Photo credit: César Poyatos)

It’s spring!  The ‘cool’ thing to do these days is a detox or a cleanse, these become really popular after the holidays and right around the beginning of spring.  While a juice or water fast does have some spiritual and/or mental benefits, they aren’t proven with science to get rid of toxins in your system.  If you are looking to spring clean your body, a better method is to stop exposing yourself to toxins along with optimizing your elimination systems.  Try some or all of these suggestions below to ‘detox’ this spring.  Stress is likely one of the biggest toxins that we all experience, so if you only do one or two things let it be meditation and/or sleep.

Eliminate the bad stuff:  cigarettes (including 2nd hand smoke), alcohol, drugs (including that Tylenol and Advil; but don’t stop your prescribed drugs without your doctor’s permission), caffeine, processed foods, refined sugar, white flour, saturated fats.  You might consider taking a hiatus from meat as well due to the biomagification that you don’t experience with primary producers.

Optimize:

• liver:  get lots of antioxidants, ingest veggies with sulfur compounds like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and garlic,
• kidneys:  lots of water
• skin: sweat and shower
• lungs:  aerobic exercise, breathing exercises
• colon:  lots of fiber and water
• mind:  meditate daily, start with 10 minutes a day if you are new (just sit still and focus on your breath)
• body:  get adequate rest

Basically daily drink at least 2 quarts of water, meditate, go for a decent walk that makes you sweat a little, shower and get at least 8 hours of sleep.  As for what you should eat:  

• make a juice to drink with your breakfast with beets, greens, carrots, and some fruit, this boosts your antioxidant intake right away, first thing
• EAT:  not junk food, but rather foods with fiber like brown rice, veggies, and fruit.
• If you are having caffeine withdrawal headaches, try some herbal tea with dandelion root in it.

If you want to further your detox, look at your environment at home and work.  See if you can replace any chemical exposures with natural alternatives.  Get a water purifier, your water source might be clean, but what is leaching into your water on the way from the reservoir to the facet?

I will be ‘detoxing’ in this way this week.  Join me and let me know how it works out!